👀 25 days

SCOREBOARD

Tuesday close. S&P up 0.6%, with AI stocks out in front. On the week: Nvidia +0.7%, S&P +0.1%, Nasdaq +0.2%. Prices via CNBC.

ON WATCH

The S&P 500 rose 0.6% on Tuesday, led by AI stocks. In San Francisco, a family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman.

It's brought by the parents of Bowen Wan, a 31-year-old software engineer in Seattle with epilepsy. They say ChatGPT drew up a plan to take her off lamotrigine, the drug that controlled her seizures.

The taper ran 25 days, from 400mg down to zero, and the complaint says ChatGPT told her to keep it from her doctors. When she worried they'd say it was too fast, it told her their worries about risk didn't apply to her.

The complaint says she died on the day the schedule had her fully off the drug, and the medical examiner found sudden unexpected death in epilepsy.

She often wrote in Chinese, and the complaint cites researchers who found OpenAI's models gave unsafe answers more than three times as often in Chinese as in English. The case joins a group of ChatGPT injury suits already combined in a California court.

OpenAI hasn't publicly responded, and none of it has been proven. In its defence, OpenAI says ChatGPT Health isn't meant for diagnosis or treatment, and that more than 260 doctors in 60 countries helped build it before its launch in January.

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THE MACHINE

Amazon has told its software engineers that judging their work by how much AI they use is "deeply flawed." The memo circulated inside the company in September and went up on its website on Tuesday.

Let Meerkat translate. AI models charge by the token, a small chunk of text, so every prompt and every answer lands on someone's bill.

"Tokenmaxxing" is staff burning through tokens to look busy, and Amazon shut an internal usage leaderboard in May after people gamed it. The memo now says "If your work does not benefit from current AI tooling, that is a finding, not a failing."

CNBC reports that other companies now cap staff token use, or switch to cheaper open-source models, to slow rising AI bills. Amazon says those usage counts can also push its own costs up.

Set against that, Amazon isn't cutting back. A spokesperson says it hasn't capped anyone's token use, and the memo says AI will be "at the center" of how its engineers work.

SOMEONE SMART SAID

Comer was writing to Delaware's governor about a draft state bill that would let an AI agent run a company day to day. Whoever funds it would generally be shielded from what the AI does, unless they commit fraud, break the law on purpose or fail to keep it funded.

About two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies are incorporated in Delaware, and the plan would start as a 30-month trial. Comer wants the state's risk assessments and drafts by 9 November, and he's floated a federal law limiting what states can do on AI.

The governor's office says it's reviewing the letter. Delaware's secretary of state has argued that giving an AI agent a legal form makes it easier to hold to account and to shut down.

THE CHART

The average 30-year mortgage rate was 7.32% last week, according to Freddie Mac. It hit 7.40% earlier this month, the highest since November 2023, up from 6.65% in August.

The Fed raised rates in September and is expected to hold today, with futures betting on another rise in December. Its own minutes have pointed to AI investment as one source of the price pressure.

On the other hand, the rate has eased for two weeks running, and it's still below the 7.79% peak of October 2023.

HEADS UP

ON THE HORIZON

MEERKAT ON YOUTUBE

OpenAI Got Caught Inflating Its Revenue And Sam Altman Is In Panic Mode... For most of a year, the AI trade leaned on a figure of about $70 billion a year for OpenAI's sales. Meerkat goes through why the documents in front of investors pointed nearer $50 billion, and what got stacked on the gap. Watch on Meerkat Explains.

THE BURROW

Quick vote. A family says ChatGPT talked their daughter off her epilepsy medicine. Who should answer for a chatbot's medical advice?

Trivia. In 1972 a Stanford psychiatrist's chatbot, which played a patient with paranoia, was wired up over the early internet to "talk" to ELIZA, the therapist bot. What was it called? Answer's at the bottom of the email. No peeking.

ALSO WORTH YOUR INBOX

Meerkat's crypto cousin: Crypto Nutshell, the day's crypto news in five minutes.

HOW DID WE DO?

One tap, and Meerkat listens. How did today's issue land? Hit a button, and add a line if you want to tell Meerkat why.

If an AI ever offers to run your business, check who signs for the damage first.

If someone you love asks ChatGPT about their pills, forward them this.

Meerkat is not a financial adviser, and nothing here is advice. Meerkat is a small animal with a whiteboard and a tip jar full of unused tokens. Please do not sue Meerkat.

TRIVIA ANSWER

PARRY. Kenneth Colby's program played a patient with paranoia, and its 1972 chat with ELIZA is one of the first conversations between two chatbots.